SA team to play African Championships

JG Claassen, Yubin Jung, Jake Redman and Trevor Mahoney have been selected to participate in the Africa Golf Team Championship, the South African Golf Association (SAGA) announced on Thursday.

The 72-hole strokeplay team competition, in which the best three scores in each round count, will be played at the Dreamland Golf and Tennis Resort in Cairo, Egypt, from September 29 to October 2.

"We have selected two young players with potential, one older player who has some international experience and a promising player of colour," said Enver Hassen, president of the SAGA and team manager.

Hassen is also the secretary general of the African Golf Federation who host this championship.

JG Claassen is an exciting 18-year-old who plays out of Orkney Golf Club in the North West Province. He is the current South African and Zimbabwe strokeplay champion. Last weekend he finished third in the Barrett Amateur Championship in Canada.

Yubin Jung (17) from the Wanderers Club in Central Gauteng has shown much promise finishing second in this year's South African strokeplay championship and then going on to win the Northern Amateur strokeplay.

Jake Redman, at 22 years old, is the senior player in the team. Having had some experience overseas this year, including playing the Barrett Amateur Championship, the Fancourt and Southern Cape player will have an important role to play in the team.

Twenty-year-old Trevor Mahoney, who plays out of Wellington Golf Club in the Boland, shot to prominence when he lost to Ryan Dreyer, the eventual winner, on the final hole of their semifinal match in this year's Glacier SA Amateur Championship. He later went on to win the Western Province Amateur.

This event is staged biennially. It was last played in 2007 at Rossmund Golf Club, Swakopmund, Namibia, where the South African team dominated, winning with a score of 873, nine over par.

They were 28 shots clear of second placed Namibia.

Running concurrently is an individual competition, also over 72 holes strokeplay.

In Namibia, South Africa's PH McIntyre won with a two under par total of 286, eight shots clear of second placed Greg Snow from Kenya.

In all 12 countries competed in 2007, a similar number is expected to participate this year.